The Role of UNICEF's Intervention Programs in Improving Polio Coverage During the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen

Hanan Saleh Nasser Abdullah, Al-Jahmi (2022) The Role of UNICEF's Intervention Programs in Improving Polio Coverage During the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

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Abstract

Even before the current crisis, the humanitarian situation in Yemen was suffering from many problems affecting the life’s standards of the population. The poor humanitarian situation in the country resulted from many factors such as political instability, multiple localized conflicts and chronic underdevelopment. All those factors led Yemen to become one of the poorest countries in the Middle East as the majority of its population lives below the poverty threshold. Moreover, when the armed conflict started in March 2015 the civilian infrastructures in the country impacted heavily including hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, public services such as water and sanitation services. In addition, the whole country started experiencing a great shortage of supplies such as food and medications which unfortunately caused mass risks to millions of people. Polio is one of the highest infectious viral diseases affecting young children, although it is considered a vaccine-preventable disease the children in Yemen still exposing to it. Therefore, fighting against polio was one of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) battles as children in Yemen were always exposed to the danger of being affected by that disease. This research aims to provide an assessment regarding the major interventions that UNICEF uses to deliver the immunization service including polio vaccines to children during the current humanitarian crisis in the country. The data collection was conducted by using a mixed-method to collect the data from 108 sampled households in addition to the structured interviews with the key informant personnel such as the health facilities management, immunization supervisors and UNICEF’s key personnel. The analysis of the results showed that UNICEF’s support has a positive impact on the immunization programme in Yemen. However, a point to be highlighted is that the coverage rate improves slowly due to several challenges faced by the population during the humanitarian crisis. The massive displaced movement due to the conflict caused more iv pressure on the health facilities which became unable to provide some areas with immunization services. The conflict also causes a decrease in the number of mobile immunization teams and national vaccination campaigns. In addition, it was found that many immunization interventions are carried out without developing a monitoring plan or training the health workers on the reporting system including data collection, analysis and calculating coverage rate or drop-out rate. This study proposed recommendations to resolve these challenges, the aid agencies such as UNICEF need to put some pressure on the conflict parties to facilitate the INGOs' work without delaying their humanitarian aids. Also, UNICEF needs to prioritize its financial and technical support to increase the number of health personnel in the expanded programme on immunization staff and mobile immunization members to be able to deliver the immunization services and handle the extra workload caused by the current humanitarian crisis. The study also recommends strengthening the immunization information system at all levels; monitoring, evaluation, on-site supervision and disease surveillance. The immunization programme should develop a detailed monitoring and evaluation plan to ensure acceptable standards of quality and effectiveness in the implemented immunization interventions.

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